Awarding poll tickets: PTI leader accuses party’s MNA of forgery

Says may move high court, old guard ignored in award of election tickets

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding member Syed Saad Abdullah has accused a party MNA from Peshawar of forgery in awarding party tickets for the upcoming local government elections, weeks after a financial corruption case was filed by an estranged founding member against PTI.

“I might approach the high court any time,” founding member of PTI from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and party’s former K-P information secretary Saad Abdullah said talking to The Express Tribune on Sunday.

However, Abdullah stopped short of blaming the party itself, accusing some ‘demagogues’ within the party of cronyism. “I do not want that party to suffer any loss because of me.”



Saad Abdullah had joined PTI in 1997 and the first assignment he did was of a polling agent during elections in NA-2 Peshawar. He was elected as district president of Peshawar in 2005, while he has also served as the PTI’s provincial president of Youth Wing and is also the founder of party’s social media portal.

But he became a victim of cronyism when he applied for an award of party ticket to contest the upcoming LG polls.

According to details, a parliamentary board decided to award the ticket for District Member Ward 41 Palosi, Town 3 to Syed Saad Abdullah. However, PTI MNA Hamidul Haq allegedly forged the original document by inserting the name of Abdul Raziq, who was given the PTI ticket instead. There was also an allegation that the selected candidate was changed through forgery as a result of a ‘deal with local cronies’.

Responding to a question, Saad Abdullah said that six out of eight members had voted in his favour, much to the dismay of Hamidul Haq. “Haq pushed the board members to sign on a blank page, but they refused, calling it inappropriate. Haq was left with no option, so he wrote my name and then others signed.”

However, Abdullah added, “later Hamidul Haq took the original letter with him and inserted a new name of Abdul Raziq above mine, bringing me on the second place.”

The former K-P information secretary further claimed: “When Haq got exposed, he approached me to let it go and not take any action.”

He alleged that because of divergence of the procedure recommended by PTI President Shah Mehmood Qureshi for awarding party tickets, what he called the “Qureshi formula”, some selfish MPAs through Provincial President Azam Swati started the process of cronyism.

“Some 60-70% workers, the ideological [founding] members, have been denied tickets and they have decided to contest as independent candidates, which would be very dangerous for the party,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2015.